Thursday, February 20, 2014

Randolph Siblings in Virginia: Cousins in Maryland and Massachusetts

My 3rd great-grandmother had children who were born thirty-five years apart!She had her first baby, born in 1827, at the tender age of fifteen and twins in 1862.She was in her seventies when she died in 1885.The thirty-five year age difference had become evident to me after meeting a cousin of mine, who lives in Malden, Massachusetts, who I met about two months ago on Ancestry.com's message board.I found her as I searched through, again, some information on my paternal 3rd great-grandparents, William Randolph and his wife Martha Jasper; I spoke of their daughter Mary Jane Randolph Summons in a previous blog post.

My newfound MA cousin has a family tree that gave me chills; she has all this mind-blowing info I had been dying to find!I have had great difficulty finding ancestors of my dad’s dad beyond his grandparents. The last person on her tree to die was as recent as 2009; I thought, “I am close to finding a living person with whom I can share.” We are now friends on Facebook!She is a great resource.

My cousin visited the archives in MA to find some of my Summons relatives who migrated from Virginia to Massachusetts in the early nineteen hundreds.Through some info she uncovered, I was able to follow-up and solve the mystery of “James A. Summons.”During one census, he was not with his wife and daughter, my cousin found info to show that the wife had remarried.I went back to my documents and found that he was living back in Virginia with his mother, Mary Jane; he died two years later in 1912.I found the death record on microfilm I ordered from Virginia’s library.His wife Emma B. Courtney Summons was free to remarry.James and Emma’s marriage produced two daughters Annie Bertha Summons Patrick and Josephine Summons who died five months after birth.

My Massachusetts cousin is the great-granddaughter of the child (Frederick Randolph) born to MarthaJasper Randolph in 1862 and I am the 2nd great-granddaughter to the child (Mary Jane Randolph) born to Martha in 1827.I will take my family reunions any way that they come...in many cases, it's been ONE PERSON AT A TIME!

Delores and Teresa how cool is that?! Once we start talking & reading each others narratives it's amazing how small our relationship-circle becomes! Very happy to hear of your new Cousin Delores & how the Ancestors are opening the door to their histories! Well deserved indeed!:)